Naruto: Earthbound
by BoneNomad
Summary: When things go wrong, they go very wrong. Taken from his friends and his adoptive family, Naruto enters a strange new world where his power may just be humanities only survival. NaruHina, elements of the Mother series within.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the Mother series.

Note: Several things from Earthbound, primarily PSI, are changed in this, mainly for artistic purposes. Everything gets explained, eventually.

Note 2: The Kyuubi attack did happen. Minato sealed it into someone. Naruto is from the Naruto dimension. Naruto is Ness. All will eventually be explained.

Note 3: It is highly unlikely that Naruto will ever actually describe himself, but he has no whisker marks and light _brown_ hair. Don't worry, this will eventually be explained.

Note 4: Eventually being maybe 6 or 7 chapters at the most. Some things get explained (somewhat) in this chapter.

Note 5: AU.

Note 6: Originally I used the symbols for Alpha, Beta and Gamma, but they won't appear on . If anyone knows how to make them work, I'd appreciate you telling. Omega works fine, though.

Naruto: Are you done with the notes?

Shikotsumyaku no Naruto: And why aren't you working on me?

BoneNomad: Because A – I recently found the awesomeness that is Mother 3. Unfortunately, Naruto can't really cross over with Mother 3, so I used Earthbound. I have played some of Earthbound, and the rest I got from various sources of information.

Naruto: You do realise you screwed up more then a few PSI powers.

BoneNomad: Why are you whinging? PK Teleport A is actually useful in battle now.

Shikotsumyaku no Naruto: But what about PSI Shield. And what's B?

BoneNomad: B – I need some time to make sure that Shikotsumyaku no Naruto isn't going to dangerously contradict the canon. As the Jyuubi is a very recent addition, I never accounted for it (or indeed, anything like it). While I don't like the recent plot turns, I respect Kishimoto enough to at least consider them before going ahead.

Naruto: Didn't Pain kind of throw you for a bit of a loop?

Shikotsumyaku no Naruto: Nah that was Yahiko. He resolved that already, anyway, remember.

Naruto: Oh, yeah…

BoneNomad: Anyway, this is more of filler then a serious story. It may turn out good, it may not. It's more of a pet project while I try to work out what to do about Shikotsumyaku no Naruto. Believe it or not, the Jyuubi issue raised a problem for the next chapter. I think I'll have to get rid of that bit… Anyway, if you like this, you like it. If you don't, don't read.

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Chapter 1  
PSI

You couldn't comprehend Giygas's attack.

Neither could I, for that matter. It didn't matter what we threw into the bleakness of that black dimension, the only source of light or colour being a giant red swirl in the distance, shaped oddly like a screaming face. PK Fire? Useless. PK Freeze? Didn't even connect. PK Thunder? If we were particularly unlucky, Gigyas would attack us during the start up lag. PK Rockin? Never once hit the guy. PK Flash? Didn't do anything. I managed to get Poo with it, though.

Don't ask.

It really wasn't all that long before Giygas had kicked our collective arses. By collective, I meant me, Jeff and Poo. We all went out of our way to protect Paula.

Ultimately, that's what put me into this position.

I was sprawled out on the ground (didn't really count as ground, seeing as we were floating in the middle of nowhere), my trusty baseball bat broken in half. I'd split my head open, and I'm fairly sure I'd broken more then one rib. I think I'd fractured a vertebra, too. That's one advantage of the PSI Power. Even if one of us is incapacitated, we can still see the fight through another's eyes. It was an advantage we held over Jeff, but I don't think he ever minded. I think he found the PSI Power more then a little disturbing.

It didn't really matter now, though, since Jeff was unconscious by Poo's side, both bleeding from various wounds on their bodies. Only Paula remained, the last man (or woman, really) standing.

Then she got down on her knees and prayed.

By some miracle, she actually did it. We won.

You're probably wondering why I bothered recounting that. It's not that I did it because I could, but because of the PSI diary I got from the Saturns, right before we travelled back to the past in those metal bodies. For some reason, it stayed with our flesh and blood bodies, and only appeared during the battle with Giygas in the other dimension.

Sort of makes sense, in a twisted way, since we were suddenly flesh and bone again when we battled the bastard.

Really, don't ask. It gives me a headache just thinking about it.

Anyway, victory was bittersweet. As Giygas died, he said more then a few disturbing things to me; things that made me question whether he was our enemy. That wasn't the worst of it, though. I was separated from the others when Giygas's dimension collapsed. As of right now, I'm in the middle of god knows where, injured and alone.

I hope the others made it home, because if this place is any indication, I never will be.

…

How depressing.

It took me a few days for my PSI powers to get me back into a somewhat reasonable state. I had several scars on my chest and right arm, where I hadn't had time (or the energy) to return the tissue to normal. I was far more concerned with stopping any bleeding and fixing busted bones.

Thankfully, there was a nearby pride of lions. I could communicate with them rather basically with the PSI power, and they were only too happy to feed me in exchange for a few services. One of those services was the protection of their young while they hunted. Sure, I may be totting around with the power of a large napalm bomb (seriously, I can level a city block with PK Fire Ω) but hunting isn't my strong suite. I'm loud and fairly clumsy, and I'm not particularly fast. That said, though, I've never needed to be fast. My PSI Shield is almost an unconscious reaction at this point, and it worked rather well until I was faced with Giygas.

Here's a way to work out what attacks can be blocked. If you can comprehend it and it's not PK Flash, you can block it. If it's PK Flash, you can't.

If you can't comprehend it, then it'll hit you long before you're aware that you were attacked.

Then again, sometimes blocking isn't a good idea. Unless you're like me and you have PSI Shield (or better, PSI Shield Ω), in which case you could sit around all day and not be bothered.

I'm getting a feeling I'm going to need to differentiate between PSI Power levels. First you have A (or Alpha. Don't look at me, I didn't make the system.), which governs the low level powers of a particular PSI Power. PK Fire A could maybe burn down a tree, for example. Sure, it's still fatal, but not very powerful on the grand scale of things. Next is B (Beta for those who don't know) which is the next step up. PK Fire B could immolate a small group of humans, with decent aim. This is when PK Flash gets dangerous, too, if my memories right. PK Flash B could potentially clear a room with a bit of luck.

Then we get to the high level powers, the first being G (Gamma). PK Fire G is no more dangerous then its B counterpart, blast radius wise. The difference is, everything in the blast radius will burn. That includes metal.

Next up is the big one. Omega, or Ω. This levels almost exclusively mass destruction. PK Fire Ω can level a city block. Unfortunately, it also leaves you with a massive headache.

Actually, that's probably a good thing. If you didn't have a drawback behind the Ω powers, you'd use them willy nilly. That wouldn't be a good thing.

Well, all right, PSI Shield Ω really doesn't have a drawback, except a little vertigo, and that is gone within a few seconds, anyway. Pretty nice for such an awesome shield, though a major problem is the fact that it's a personal shield. It won't protect any friends.

That and there are a few things that G can block that Ω can't. It's the only PSI power that gets weaker on the last jump.

You see, PSI Shield G needs to be realized just as you get hit by your opponent, while PSI Shield Ω only needs to be realized once every… oh, five minutes at best. It depends how many hits it takes.

Anyway, I stayed with that pride for a few days. Then I headed off again. My clothes were more or less in tatters, which made it fairly obvious that I needed to find civilisation, for clothing if nothing else.

Unfortunately, when all you can do is pick a random direction and hope you run into a settlement, things get more then a little difficult. I ended up walking into a forest after a week. I don't know what possessed me to enter that forest, but I did. It took me a few days of wandering, but I did finally find a road.

What I found on that road was… a little strange. Actually, strange doesn't even begin to describe it… much like most of my life.

While the sounds of combat are what initially led me to the road, what I found on it surprised me. Two boys and a girl, none of whom could be much older then me, fighting against five fully-grown men in full black body armour, all formfitting. White porcelain masks covered their faces, and in one's hands was a long, slightly curved sword of a make I must admit to never seeing before. Mind you, my only experience with swords is the Sword of Kings Poo used. The kids, on the other hand, were more unique. On the far left was a tall, brown haired boy wearing what appeared to be a hoodie and slacks, although the colours barely matched (dude, dark grey and brown don't belong together. It's painfully easy to see.) Anyway, there was a red strike down his left cheek, and I felt it was fairly safe to assume that there was another on his right, but I couldn't see his right side.

To his right (more accurately behind him, since I was on the left) was a young girl. Short, dark blue hair and white eyes are strange, even where I come from (and there's more then a few PSI users around, let me tell you). Anyway, she wore a tan jacket and black slacks (I'm starting to see a trend here…). Mind you, if she really needed to hide I suppose it would do, seeing as at least she probably had something on underneath. The first boy clearly didn't.

The last member was to her right. At first I had trouble seeing him, until the girl leapt back a step to avoid a shiny metal star. Like his friends, he too wore a jacket, a light grey or tan. Unlike his friends, his hoodie was up, and glasses covered his eyes. Mind you, he also wore black slacks… yeah, there's definitely a trend here.

I stayed back in the tree line, avoiding the battle. At first I was just going to walk right on by, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that they were in serious trouble. Ah well, what was another missed deed to the list. I already killed Giygas, and at this point I'd long since accepted that he (probably) had been innocent.

Then I saw one of the masked men create a fireball out of nothing. Now I was interested… all right, fine, I admit that I interfered because I thought they were going to die. I guess it's in my nature to help people. I'd realized a PSI Shield B before I'd even reached them.

One thing you have to understand about PSI Shield, is that it can be used to block either physical or PSI attacks, but not both at once. This is part of the reason why Paula and I used to focus it in different directions. We'd keep an eye on the enemy and react accordingly. That way, if Paula was wrong (She usually made a PSI blocking shield) I could still catch the attack. Still with me?

Anyway, the awesome thing about PSI Shield B, despite being weaker then G, is that it shields everyone in about, oh, a metre radius of you. It lasts ten seconds, though, but that is enough. PSI Shield G will only block one thing. Specifically, the first thing that hits it, so it's really not good for multi hit attacks.

Anyway, PSI Shield B was more then enough to cover the lot of us, the fireball crashing against it and wrapping around us. Now a ring of flame surrounded us, but we were fine.

"Stay behind me." I commanded. Several more things, such as metal stars and another fireball, came at us, but I batted them away with a few quick realizations of PSI Shield G. It was painfully obvious what shield could block what, after all. The men were rather surprised, though.

"PK Fire G!" I cried, seeing as this battle wasn't going anywhere. Yeah, I know calling out the name of my power is a bad habit, but it helps me realize the right one. Trust me, you don't want to realize an offensive power on an ally. I've done it before. Anyway, the easiest way to describe what happened was that a pillar of flame cracked into existence where the centre most man was. Thus, all but one was char in seconds.

I've always hated the smell of burning flesh…

Anyway, the other turned and leapt into the trees, but a quickly realized PK Thunder B left him about 20 metres down the road, the right side of his ribs blown out.

You know, I've never really minded killing other humans. I don't do it often (actually, only once), but Giygas hardened me against any horrors I could realistically encounter in life. Still, it sucked to be me. I'm god knows where, all alone, with no way of going home. I'm not even going to try using PK Teleport. It's unlikely to help.

"Ano… dochirasama?" The girl asked, her hands up in what I could assume was a martial arts stance of some kind… wait… crap, there's a language barrier between us. That wasn't actually that big a problem…

Tedious to fix, though.

Telepathy isn't technically a PSI power. It's more of a… perk. Anyway, all humans think the same, at the most basic level. When using telepathy, this is the level you're communicating at, so misunderstandings are impossible. That said, it's also impossible to lie. Given enough time, I could probably sift upwards through someone's mind and… well; download seems to be the most appropriate term, another language from them.

I don't like using telepathy on girls, though. It's not hard to go from telepathy to outright mind reading, especially on unfamiliar minds. A gender barrier was actually more annoying then the language barrier.

"_Can you say that again?" _I asked, though not aloud. All three of them jumped, but they didn't seem as shocked as I thought they would be.

"Who are you?" The girl repeated. She was still weary of me, probably within good reason.

"_My name is Naruto."_ I replied. Yeah, I know, not an American name. So what, I'm adopted. The three didn't seem any less weary of me, though.

Then a tree shook, putting us all on guard. I was halfway through realizing a PK Flash B before I realized that whoever it was is friendly, for now. I was quite surprised when a woman leapt out of the tree. Black hair was normal, red eyes were not. Then again, the dress she wore seemed to be made of bandages.

I'd been here less then two weeks and I was already scared of this place. Normal seemed to cease to exist.

They were hospitable, at least. They explained that they were ninjas on a mission, but I never really caught their names. They moved pretty damn fast.

However, they were also my safest way to civilisation, so I followed them. It's really easy for a PSI user to track someone. Unfortunately, they moved at least five times as fast as I did. PK Teleport came in handy.

Anyway, we (well, I was following them. I arrived about a day later, though) soon arrived at an oriental Asian town, filled to the brim with bars and casinos. I'd spent the last week carefully lifting their language out of the girls mind, since she seemed to have the strictest 'by the definition' vocabulary. Sure, I'd be able to communicate, but not well. I tried getting into the woman's mind, but she quickly realized someone was there. Still, she probably thought it was a Genjutsu.

I avoided the boys, though. I wanted proper language, not the arrogant and rude construction that teenage boys often used (yes, I quickly recognised that boys and girls spoke in slightly different ways. However, it was probably better to come of feminine then arrogant). Until I could find a young boy that I could lift some more of the language out of, it would do. After the woman, I wasn't willing to try another adult.

I spent about a week in that town, gathering information. I worked as a delivery boy during that week, promising quick deliveries anywhere in the world. I meant it, too. I think some people were surprised when I was asked to go halfway across the world and returned the next day with a reply.

Still, I got paid well for it, enough to live off. Pity these guys don't have aspirin.

My next issue was that I couldn't read their language, even though I could speak (a feminine version of) it. That wasn't something I could lift out of someone's head. Don't ask me the specifics of it; the explanation I got from Jeff didn't make sense to me. Something about the arrangement of neurons or something.

Anyway, after a week, I'd lifted enough of the language to be able to live in their culture, even if I didn't know their customs. However, I decided it was time to move on. I went back the way I came, although this time I stuck to the road. About four days later I ran into those ninja again, although this time it was me who was moving faster then them… well, I was hunting at the time. Pity they got to that deer first.

They let me travel with them, too. I was actually somewhat surprised at that, although I kept my conversations with them telepathic. It was a good opportunity to lift more of their language from the girl's head. She was a lot more formal then the townspeople.

Evening was always strange for us. The girls and boys had their own tents, but I had neither. Thankfully, I had bought a sleeping bag when I'd acquired some new clothes (a few hoodies of various colours, a few plain t-shirts and some shorts), so I was fine. Besides, I like looking at the stars.

Anyway, I think it was the third day I'd been travelling with them that the girl had come and joined me by the fire. After the second day they'd gotten used to me doing unexplainable things, especially since their language didn't seem to accommodate the PSI power. Omega, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, there were no words that were quite right for any of them.

"What are you thinking about?" The girl asked, curiously. I'd been scribbling in a notebook the past hour, trying to make sense of a few things that had been bothering me. I was surprised at the sound of her voice, and accidentally realized a PSI Shield G, which ended up extinguishing the fire.

"Pk Fire A." I grumbled, relighting the flame. The girl giggled a little, sitting down next to me. That actually made me a little nervous.

"_Just trying to work out a few things."_ I eventually responded, scribbling down a few notes. The girl nodded, and we sat in silence for a while, the only noise coming from my brush or the fire (as a side note, it's really hard to write in English with a brush. Our letters weren't made for it).

"My name is Hinata Hyuuga." She said finally. It took me a few seconds to realise she'd said it in English.

"Wait, what?" I asked stupidly, regressing into English myself. "You can speak English!"

"Yes, I can." She muttered, a little red faced. "It isn't has easy has you make it look."

"As." I corrected. "Has is used when referring to an object that someone owns. Example: Hinata has an apple." Hinata nodded, still flushed.

We lapsed into silence again, until I started swearing. I could now (somewhat) prove that Giygas wasn't our enemy.

"What do those words mean?" Hinata asked, lapsing back into her language. I jumped as I realised that I wasn't alone.

"_You don't want to know."_ I replied. Some of the words I used didn't bear repeating.

I was glad she didn't push the subject.

"Where do you come from?" Hinata asked. I was caught rather off guard by the sudden question. I wasn't exactly sure where I was let alone where home was.

"_Somewhere far away."_ I finally replied. It wasn't a lie. I just didn't know how far away it was. I think she realised it was a sore subject, and left it alone. Glancing at my notes, she pointed to an almost absently drawn Ω.

"What does that mean?" She asked. I smiled, lapsing back into English.

"Full of questions, aren't you." I stated. "It means Omega."

"Omega?" I could almost hear the unvoiced half of her question.

"Omega is a symbol used to describe the end. In mathematics, we also occasionally use it as a variable or a constant." Hinata's face held the confused look rather cutely, actually. I almost laughed when I glanced back at her.

"_It doesn't translate well into your language."_ I explained. _"You don't have the right words to describe it."_

"I see." Actually, she didn't, but I didn't call her out on it.

The next morning Hinata finally got around to telling me the others names. The brown haired boy was Kiba and the other was Shino. Oh, and Kiba has a small white puppy named Akamaru, too. He just never seemed to click with me until I had a name. Anyway, the woman was named Kurenai. She was their Jounin sensei… translates roughly into master ninja teacher or something. My grip on this language isn't quite as good as I thought.

Anyway, we made our way along the road for another two days with minimal friction on both parties. My main contact with the group was Hinata, but I did talk with Kiba and Shino occasionally. Kiba was brash, enough so that I actually left his head and relied on the language I'd obtained from Hinata. Some of his phrases actually translated into curses…

I'm not sure if he was rude so much as informal, though. Very informal…

Shino, on the other hand… very quite. Actually being in his head was the only way I could actually hold a conversation with him. He asks questions all the time, but never voices them. Everyone was surprised when I started holding a one sided conversation with him in their language. Well, they were going to find out anyway.

He's an interesting guy… pity he's as shy as Hinata. At first, I didn't really notice, since I wasn't paying much attention, but both Hinata and Shino tend to answer or ask questions but never voice the words. Both of them are pretty damn smart, too. Shino actually managed to digest the concept of Omega and the like. I was actually surprised to find that society wasn't as advanced here as it was back home. Sure, they had TV and the like, but it was strictly military use still. They'd never heard of phones, the Internet, anything like that.

Jeff would have a field day.

Kurenai was strange. I couldn't stay in her head, since she'd repeatedly boot me right back out, so I had to converse in their language. That led to more then a few misunderstandings, but thankfully Hinata was around. She could translate my words from English… usually.

I kept the PSI power secret, more for my safety then theirs. For what they knew, my powers were just a strange Jutsu. I'd like to keep it that way.

Jutsu… what a strange word. It meant art or technique… I'm not sure which, but ninja refer to most of their superhuman abilities in that way. Dangerous abilities, but easily blocked for one like me. Jutsu were incredibly obvious in whether they were physical or… well, they weren't PSI but they could be blocked in the same way. Genjutsu were little more then irritations for me, since Poo had made sure we could all ignore illusions. Giygas was the master in that domain, after all.

The next day we arrived in a small forest town… or rather what was left of it. It had been burned to the ground. Kurenai ordered her students to stay back and went to investigate, and I wasn't too far behind her. I knew there were no survivors. I would have been able to sense if there were. It was rather disturbing when I found the charred corpse of what appeared to be a child.

Our investigations didn't actually conclude anything, except that whoever did it was sufficiently skilled to not leave a trace. However, now the ninja needed to get back to their village as soon as possible. They were spending the night about a kilometre out, though.

I know, most Americans use the Imperial system. Believe it or not, the community I lived in was mostly British, with a few Aussies and Asians thrown into the mix. We were rather un-American.

"We're probably going to leave you behind in the morning." Hinata noted in English as she cooked dinner, everyone gathered around the fire. I didn't answer, examining the map she'd given me so I could at least find civilisation. It was part of a small encyclopaedia. Pity it wasn't in English.

Wait a moment.

"Does your village actually look like this?" I asked. Hinata nodded, pointing at the stone faces upon the mountain in the background.

"Those are the Fire Shadows. They lead the village." She stated. I nodded.

"How long until you get there?" I asked. Hinata said something to Kurenai quickly. It was a strange mix of words, and I couldn't make out the meaning.

"Six days at full speed." She muttered. "We're leaving you behind. Sorry."

"I can get you there tomorrow." I replied, dead serious. Hinata's eyes bugged at that.

"That's several hundred kilometres away." She muttered. I shrugged.

"Distance means little to me." I replied. "If you wanted me to, I could get you there right now."

Needless to say, the others didn't believe me. I'll prove them wrong tomorrow. First I need to study this map.

I woke up bright and early the next day, before dawn, in fact. I wasn't going to let them sneak off on me. I wanted to see this Konoha for myself.

Well, I also owed Hinata. I did take most of my knowledge of their language out of her head, even if it was without her knowing. I think it crossed her mind a few times that I could possibly read thoughts, but she didn't really seem to care. Either that or she trusted me not to.

"Your awake." Hinata said softly, sitting by my side in front of the small flame I'd lit. I needed to learn the name of her language. Actually, I'll ask her that now.

"What's your language called?" I asked in English. Hinata giggled a little.

"I was wondering if you'd ask." She said, lapsing over into English. "It's called Rakuten. It doesn't have a meaning, though."

"Rakuten." I repeated. We fell into silence as she cooked some rations for breakfast. Nothing special, just dried ham and toast. Usually I don't eat ham, but there isn't anything else to eat.

It wasn't actually long until the others joined us. I was looking at the map again, making sure I had the location fixed in my head.

"Hinata, where are we, roughly?" I asked. Hinata pointed at a small country two borders to the right of the Land of Fire (our destination). Damn, PSI Teleport A wasn't going to cover this one. I don't like using B. It gives me a major headache afterwards, and we weren't guaranteed to leave it standing up. A is a lot more tame.

"This is where we part." Kurenai stated. I shook my head.

"I said I was going to take you there today, and I meant it. Grab hands and make a chain." I barked in English. Hinata quickly translated for me, thankfully. Grabbing Kurenai's hand, I firmly fixed that town in mind.

"I'm going to start running. I need you to stay in pace with me. No faster, no slower. It doesn't have to be exact, but it does need to be close." I said. Hinata translated again, as I took off at a steady gait. I closed my eyes, well aware that there was a tree in front of me.

I don't know, it just seems easier when I teleport to dodge something. I've done that before, actually. Porky's hatred for me is probably now defined by the fact that I did it to him during the battle at the Devil Machine… a lot.

"PK Teleport B!" I cried, stepping down hard. Vertigo rushed through me, as the distinct feeling of being squished into a little ball and hurled at breakneck speed washed over me. It was bloody uncomfortable.

It helps that it only lasts for three seconds, but it feels like eternity. The next thing I knew, I had smashed headfirst into a large gate, breaking my nose. The others, being ninja, managed to either stop or rebound off the gate, but I'd been moving too fast to even notice it was there until I hit it.

You know, I pride myself on the fact that my mind is faster (note that I said faster, not sharper. My actual intelligence sometimes leaves a little to be desired, but I can keep up with even the fastest moving opponents) then most inhuman creatures can move. It had to be, or my PSI Shield wouldn't be half as effective. That says something for how fast I was moving, and how close to the wall I must have appeared. I wasn't holding Kurenai's hand anymore when we landed.

As I've said before, I'm not actually that fast. I'm no athlete. However, PSI Teleport B and up all need a running start… and magnify that speed when you land. I haven't used PSI Teleport A for a while, actually.

Wait, I used it on Porky… let me correct myself. I haven't used it to travel in a while.

Anyway, after a minute of lying on my back and trying to get my bearings (not succeeding terribly well, either), Hinata helped me sit up, while Kiba and Shino were still trying to work out if what I'd done was an illusion. With a groan, I felt at my nose.

It was twisted out of shape. Oh well, nothing a PK Life wouldn't fix.

That's the thing about PK Life. It is really a misnomer, cause it heals wounds, as opposed to resurrecting the dead. It's counterpart, PK Healing, fixes illnesses.

"PK Life B." I muttered, fixing my nose with a wet snap. Oh, one more thing, PK Life A doesn't fix bones. That was a bit of an issue for a while, since I broke my arm fairly early in our adventure. That effectively put me out of combat until we realized PK Life B for the first time. Don't get me wrong, PK Rockin is MY PK move, but it doesn't discriminate targets. Sure, none of the others do, with one exception (You can't hit yourself with your own PK Power unless it's of a beneficial nature), but PK Fire can be directed at just one person, no matter the level, as can PK Thunder and PK Ground or any PK. Even PK Flash can do it. PK Rockin can't, though. That's why I got the others to teach me their PK Powers in the first place. Eventually, it got to the point that if any of us realized a PK Power, we'd teach the others immediately. The dangers were just too high for us to hoard our own techniques. PK Starfall Ω was a particularly big offender, since Poo realized it long before I realized either PK Rockin Ω or PK Flash Ω.

No one else could realize PK Rockin for some reason, except Giygas. I was very disturbed to see Giygas use PK Rockin Ω on us. It was the only attack he used that we could comprehend. It did us no good, though. A PSI Shield can't block PK Rockin.

No, not even PK Shield G, and that's notorious for blocking anything. Trust me, I tried.

After our arrival, we were quickly shepherded in. Yes, we. I was apparently to meet with the Fire Shadow for my PK Teleport trick. Lucky me.

The village was much like every other I've passed through, Asian and rustic. It wasn't a terrible place, though. People bustled through the streets, heedless of their own problems. It was refreshing, seeing as everywhere I'd been in the last year had at least one thing wrong with it, and more often then not that thing was related somehow to Porky. Reflecting over everything, its now incredibly easy to see how long Porky's arm was.

We didn't take long to reach a large red tower, almost in the centre of the mountain face behind it. We were quickly shuffled up some stairs, where we finally reached a circular room that overlooked the village, an aged man sitting behind a beautiful wooden desk. The man wore tan robes, red lined in certain places, and a triangular hat upon his head with a strange character on it.

"Welcome home, Kurenai. Your rather early." The Fire Shadow stated, taking a puff from a pipe. I could feel something off about him.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. He had the PSI power.

I think there's something I should explain about the PSI power. It doesn't usually appear in humans at all. In fact, the few who can use it rarely gain the power before adulthood. Me, I had it since birth, presumably, since I used it as a baby. Most don't obtain it until puberty or adulthood, though.

That's what made me, Paula and Poo so unique. We were all born with the power, some of us more so then others. Poo called me the strongest PSI user to ever live. While I think he was exaggerating, Jeff and Paula don't. In fact, Jeff once compared my PK Fire Ω to Paula's. Mine was about 200 degrees hotter… Celsius.

For those of you who use the Imperial system… that's fricken hot. Both of us could make flames that were well beyond what it would take to melt metal. The difference was, mine was hot enough to make rock burn.

By rock burn, I mean I could turn a boulder to ashes.

Scary, no? That's why we watch out for friendly fire. Even if the various PSI protections we put in place as backups can reduce it to a moderate burn, we'd still rather avoid it, if only to avoid the headache we get from absorbing so much PSI power at once.

Anyway, the old man before me definitely had the PSI power. He was also completely untrained, but it made me wonder how many ninja may also have it. I also realized what would happen if I helped them realize that power.

It would get ugly fast.

Then I felt something I was hoping I wouldn't. It was very basic telepathy, couldn't do more then read emotions. Enough to tell if someone lied, he probably did it unconsciously.

It was also bad manners.

Yes, I am aware that what I did to Hinata was also bad manners (actually, it had been downright rude) but there was a difference in situation there. I had a language barrier between them and me. He was ensuring I wasn't lying without giving me the benefit of the doubt. Still, I was a little ashamed of what I did next.

"Get out of my head." I growled in their language. Kurenai and the others were surprised, but not as much as the Fire Shadow was. Nonetheless, the tendril retreated, meaning the old man had at least that much control. He was much too old, too set in his ways to be able to realize more then a few PK A powers, but I was going to ensure he at least knew what his power was.

"How did…" The old man wondered to himself. Then I cut right on in, like a hot knife through butter.

"That was bad manners." I growled. "You do not enter another persons head without permission except when there are no other options of communication." I glossed over the fact that I'd done it during every single meeting I had with Hinata and the others. It was rude to do it, even if there is a language barrier, but it is excusable in much the same way you do not punish a young child for speaking when they shouldn't.

Well, now I didn't have a hope in hell of hiding the PSI power. There was no point in even trying. I had a feeling that the Rakuten language was about to get expanded considerably.

Just to drive my point home, I walked right on into his mind. He was certainly aware I was there, but lacked the knowledge to remove me. I left barely ten seconds later, having made my point. With that, I bowed.

"I apologise for my rudeness." I stated. Hey, I'd taken the hint from the others, who'd bowed when they entered. "But the PSI power isn't a joke." Whilst the sentence itself had been in their language, PSI had been in English. They didn't have an actual alphabet; after all, just an arrangement of sounds that form their words. While that's true for any language, it's especially true here. The only other language I can think of that would have 'ka' as a letter would be Chinese.

Anyway, I had the old mans attention, but any conversation between us would have to wait. I was sent out of the room whilst Kurenai delivered her debriefing with her team. It was almost an hour later that I'd been sent back in.

"Please, sit." The aged man stated. He then asked me something, but I didn't understand what he said. I knew we weren't going to get too far with the language barrier, so I exercised telepathy on him.

"_Ask again." _I stated mentally. The mans eyes widened, but he repeated the question.

"What brings you to my land?" He asked. I smiled at that.

"_Honestly, bad luck."_ I stated, but I didn't elaborate. He caught on to it being a sensitive topic almost immediately. _"That's beside the point though. We need to discuss your training."_ That caught him by surprise.

If you were the leader of a village, and got there by being the strongest in the land, you'd be surprised too when a kid walks up to you, berates you then says its time to discuss training. I found this oddly hilarious at the time.

"Training? Pardon me, but I doubt you can teach me anything." He replied. My giggles turned into outright laughter at that. I motioned for him to stand up.

"_Put your hand on my shoulder."_ I stated. I've met sceptics during my time. PK Teleport usually fixes that.

It sure fixed Jeff, even if he hadn't been a sceptic.

Sure, I could have done a number of other powers, but PK Teleport was inherently non-violent. Many other applications could be passed off or scoffed at, and he was old. At his age, he probably thought that minor telepathy was all the PSI power could do. I was about to disabuse him of that notion.

Violently if necessary.

"PK Teleport A!"

We reappeared in the village's (village my ass. It's more of a city) main street, the Fire Shadow flying right on over my shoulder. Whilst if he were an enemy, I'd have let him fall, he wasn't. I'm not cruel. Mean, sometimes, but not cruel.

"PK Grab B." I called, holding my hand out like a claw. The old man halted barely two feet from the ground, not moving an inch as a light blue aura surrounded him. Then I lowered him to the ground enough that he could kneel. He was on his feet seconds later.

Sure, public spectacle, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"_That was some fairly minor PSI abilities."_ I stated. _"I could have done worse."_ The old man was impressed, very impressed. It seemed we'd established a pecking order.

He was my senior, so I'd respect him and listen to him. On matters of PSI, however, I'm the master. It didn't take me long to recognise a small limp as he made his way back towards me. That was when it occurred to me that while my demonstration was effective, it didn't work anywhere near as well on the elderly. They were already weakening, and I had possibly damaged his left leg with that little trick.

"_Stand still, sir."_ I stated, moving towards him, when my PSI Shield flared into existence multiple times. I've said it before, but the PSI Shield is instinctive for me, now. It's how my body reacts to danger. PSI Shield G also has quite a bit of force behind it when it blocks physical attacks, enough to send people sprawling. The Fire Shadow stated some harsh words to his ninja as I moved closer, regardless.

"PK Life B." I muttered, healing quite a bit more then just his leg. _"That should help you, but at your age, you should be more careful."_ The Fire Shadow nodded, as he began walking towards the red tower.

"Indeed. Walk with me?" He asked. I followed the question, staying slightly behind him. "I must admit, this is difficult to believe."

"_That something you've believed to be very limited all of your life has applications beyond what should physically be possible? Sorry, I wouldn't know. I've always had the power, always expanded it. As I grew, so did it. To me, it is limitless potential, something that grows regardless of whether I do or not." _I replied. _"I suppose I am the opposite of you. Still, we must discuss your training. I refuse to leave an untrained PSI user behind me."_

"Why do you insist on training me? At my age, I'm not sure I can learn very much." He responded.

"_PSI powers are magnified tenfold by extreme emotional stimulus. One day you may find your village being destroyed, yourself powerless to stop it. Untrained PSI users have been known to accidentally realize PK Starstorm or PK Fire Ω in similar situations."_ I stated. It was very true, actually. That was how Paula had eventually realized PK Fire Ω. PK Starstorm was theoretical, but plausible.

Thankfully we'd been in the middle of nowhere at the time, or Paula would have seriously hurt a lot of people. She did hurt me.

"_Anyway, to be honest, there really isn't much I can teach you. As you said, you're too old."_ I didn't continue on that vein. I wasn't trying to discourage him.

"Can it be taught to ninja?" He asked. I hesitated.

"_PSI cannot be learned. It's a power that you either have or don't have." _I replied. _"That said, some of your ninja might possess it."_

"Could you teach them?" He asked again.

"_I'm hesitant to. The PSI power could turn your nation into an empire."_ I responded. _"Such power shouldn't be used for destruction. Very few people can do more then realize a small fireball or fix bruises back home."_

"I see." He muttered. I sighed at that.

"_We'll see. I want to check who actually possesses the power, first. I may train some of them, or none of them. It depends on their attitude."_ With that I stopped. _"Your training will begin next week. I'll see you everyday for one hour. We'll work out a specific time later."_ With that, I realized PK Teleport A, and vanished.

At this point, I'll be honest. The PSI Power is something that I hold in very high esteem. I am a painfully ordinary person, and the PSI Power is all that separates me from the rest of my home. That said, I can't stand people who use the PSI Power for personal gain. This is part of why I dislike Porky. Although he is a VERY weak PSI user, he is still a PSI user. Otherwise, Giygas wouldn't have bothered with him.

Notice that here I use Giygas as a definitively evil being. That's because, at this point in time, he was. When we went back to fight him, however, Giygas was just lonely. Porky lied to us when he called Giygas the embodiment of evil. Now I understand why Buzz-Buzz thought Giygas was truly irredeemable. Granted, he never said it outright, but I can read between the lines. Giygas became evil because of my actions at his birth, which in turn caused Buzz-Buzz to come back in time and give me the Sound Stone. I don't know why that changed everything, but it did.

Maybe the original me didn't have it when he fought Giygas.

Dear god, now I'm just confusing myself.

The next few days were blurry for me. I wasn't well known in the building, despite 'beating up the Hokage' as one kid said. I've taken to referring to the Fire Shadow as the Hokage from now on. It seems more appropriate.

Anyway, it wasn't hard to rent an apartment, from which I continued my delivery service. It quickly became known as the go to service if you wanted something delivered within five minutes, maybe ten. I didn't get as much business, but people paid more. Maybe that's because everyone lives in the same village here, and very few people need things to go elsewhere. Most people just walk over to the person's house and speak face to face.

I saw Hinata yesterday, but we didn't talk. She was in some sort of robe with about six other people with white eyes. The brief moment I was in her head she warned me against coming close. I get the feeling she doesn't agree with her family.

I also saw a bird flying over town erratically, but I didn't pay it too much mind.

Anyway, today is a Friday, and I'm going to the Hokage's tower for a word. It's time we sorted out his PSI training. I got an audience quickly enough, although when I entered, he and a white haired man were arguing with several well-dressed people. I'd go so far as to guess they were secretaries or governors.

The white haired man was strange. He wore his headband like an eye patch, covering his left eye. His hair spiked straight up, too…

"That's enough of this for now." The Hokage stated, his attention on me. "We will discuss this matter later."

"No, we shall not." An obviously injured man growled, bandaged up like half a mummy. In one hand was a cane, which I assumed he used to get around. "The Uchiha must be allowed to participate in the exams, or we face disaster." My eye twitched. Exam, huh.

"_What does this exam consist of?" _I asked the Hokage mentally. The old man turned to face me, a small smile on his face. I guess, like me, he had a healthy respect for knowledge, no matter how small.

"It is a ninja exam to advance to the next rank, consisting of three parts." He stated. I shrugged.

"_Then what's the problem? Let the guy compete if he wants to." _I replied. Unfortunately it wasn't so simple.

"The exam can only be taken in groups of three. Unfortunately, most Genin not participating are either incapacitated or deemed ineffectual." The Hokage replied.

That was a problem. I knew very well what happened when a team had a weak link. Paula was always ours.

We worked around it, though. Paula wasn't so much a weak link as a powerful but fragile ally. In the beginning, though, she had certainly been a weak link.

"_Then I'll take it with him."_ I stated. The Hokage flinched.

"You are not a ninja." He replied. I shrugged.

"_Your point? Isn't your creed 'expect the unexpected' or something anyway?"_ I retorted. The Hokage considered it for a moment.

"Why volunteer? I thought you had other things to do?" He asked. I shrugged.

"_I'm still learning your language. Information is easier to get out of a child then an adult. Besides, it gives me an opportunity to examine your ninja corps for other PSI users." _I replied. Hey, my mind is fast. I'd already considered my options. _"Besides, better me, someone who can adapt and be adapted to, then someone with a fighting style that needs to be learned."_

"Then that settles that. Um…" Then it hit me; I'd never given him my name.

"_It's Naruto." _I stated.

"… Naruto here will be Team Seven's third member for the duration of the exam." He stated. The mummy looked like he was about to say something, but I interrupted.

"Hokage, I am aware you have other obligations, but this really can't wait. I only have another ten minutes before I must return to work." I stated. "I won't have another chance to talk to you until Monday."

"Very well. Danzo, object later. Leave us." The Hokage commanded. The governors (I think they were, anyway) left silently, although I could feel their annoyance.

"Naruto, I'd like you to meet Kakashi, the sensei of Team Seven." The Hokage stated. I nodded.

"Pleased to meet you. Hokage…" I started, but the man showed that he was every bit as good at interrupting others as I was.

"Kakashi is privy to this meeting as confirmation it happened." He stated, sitting down behind his desk. "Now…"

"What time is best for you?" I asked bluntly. "I'm fine at any time, but your timetable isn't as flexible as mine."

"My work is slowest at 1 pm. That would be the best time." He stated. I nodded.

"Great. Any questions?" I asked. The Hokage nodded.

"Just one. Is the PSI power a dominant genetic trait?" He asked. I almost snorted at that.

"The PSI power is alien in nature, but is one hundred percent natural. Any human could learn how to use it, but they need to possess the power first. Unfortunately, possessing it is random." I replied. I'm fairly sure I tripped over myself a few times, but it wasn't my native language.

"I see. Anyway, if you find that any Konoha Genin possess the power, you are entitled to train them should you so desire. Just be sure to work out a schedule with me and their Jounin sensei before hand." He stated. I nodded at that.

"Very well, I can live with that." We talked a little while longer, mainly just basic definitions of the PSI power. We had a little trouble with the Ω definition, but that's fairly normal at this point.

Their language was fairly limited at some times, though.


End file.
